Posts Tagged ‘Build 2015’

Build 2015 was full of treasures. Partnerships, open Source integration, Visual Studio, Azure, IoT were the big areas. New face of microsoft with a focus on open source and 3rd party support like github was a huge part of the Visual Studio suite.

The big themes of the conference was developing apps for the Cloud and developing UAP apps with Visual Studio 2015 platform. You could download the preview version of the community one here.http://visualstudio.com/products/free-developer-offers-vs
It was clear that Microsoft had been listening to the developers and was beginning to integrate with open source tools. Azure was a big focus area where developers from a lot of SMB varying from insurance /accounting to gaming were looking at Azure as a potential platform. In the space of Big data Azure Data factory was an interesting talk about reuse patterns for Big Data with machine learning analysis built in step as part of the workflow.
Visual studio tools for converting iOS and Android apps to Windows apps was well received. It is surprising how many developing on iOS using Objective C and were delighted to hear cross platform support for Objective C. The new Visual Studio Code IDE has an intelisense rich environment to build Android apps was a welcomed by everyone. This should be a welcome change from the Android IDE’s such as h Eclipse or Android Development studio. Check the newest member of the Visual Studio family which is pretty lightweight and takes less than 60 Mb of space.http://code.visualstudio.com/
Image below shows the power of the Visual Studio platform

Halo lens created a lot of buzz with developers being able to play with it. Lot of verticals such as education and Architecture. Gaming maybe next …Buzz
Big buzz events of the event were Halolens and support for Objective C and Java.
Visual Studio support of Open source software such as Alljoyn and Github and 3rd party software especially in the Big data space and its integration with Visual Studio was very well received.

Key takeaways from Builds

App. Gap between Windows Phone and IoS /Android will be bridged by project Astoria and Islandwood. This allows developers to port their existing IoS apps and Android Apps to Windows apps. There maybe restrictions on phone hardware needed to run such apps. This is great news for Windows Phone OEM’s.

Win32 apps to to UAP apps. with project continuum
This I think is one of the best messages not just for developers but also for OEMs to move their first and third party apps to UAP apps from Win32.
This was ISV’s can convert their Win 32 apps to UAP apps by using Project Centennial. The apps. can then be purchased using the Store. This helps the apps. to be more secure, less resource intensive and battery freidnly.

Edge the new browser – Better web experience
Key reason for using the browser is primarily around because it will work well with optimized sites, supports Cortana and many other gems such as Web extensions, pointer lock for shooter games and reading lists . IE due to compatibility reasons may not support but with forked code. This allows for edge supportability forked with IE compatibility. The best part is that Edge can launch IE for sites which are not compatible for example which need VB script.
Other things are distraction-free offline reading and built-in note-taking & sharing. Below is a comparison of Alaska airlines website on a mobile device.

Design for Win 10 by the user for the user
Please ask folks from outsider to join the insider program to get an early feel for Windows and provide feedback as the feedback is taken seriously including for UX. The builds with new features are flighted directly to the system.

One Store

For those of you have written Windows apps for phone and desktop OS like me on Win 8.1. The experience can be nerve wrecking as you need to create 2 accounts one for Windows Phone and one for desktop. Duplicate everything from monetizing, geographies of release, price, screenshots and descriptions. I just saw a note from Microsoft for my store application called “SecureData”

There will be now one store, one submission and one process for everything. One does have the option to create multiple packages for OS or platform…

There will be now one store, one submission and one process for everything. One does have the option to create multiple packages for OS or platform…

Project Continuum

What is Continuum?

Two apps run simultaneously on two screens

Windows Apps transition seamlessly and look beautiful on any screen

Keyboard and mouse support

To make the application adaptive to any screen size understanding effective pixel is key. Effective pixel is independent of screen. Some terminology. More on that here:

Think about how your app. Scales to the big screen. Scaling which depends on pixel density and viewing distance. There is no rule of thumb that a desktop has higher scale than a mobile phone. It is primarily dependent on pixel density and viewing density.

Some other cool features include using the other screen not just to mirror but to take advantage of the 2 screens simultaneously with multi screen API …

Some technologies to watch out for

Nano Server – Nano server doesn’t just remove features but is a self contained engine. Microsoft defines its Nano Server as a “headless, 64-bit only deployment option for Windows Server.” It’s like Server Core, except that it’s 20 times smaller. The compressed size or reduced server “footprint” brings a number of benefits, including fewer security vulnerabilities to address, reduced patch and reboot times, and scalability improvements.

Windows itself is evolving with feedback from Insider program. Instead of fixed set of design the design is evolving which appears to be by design and is sometimes misconstrued as instability.

The other comforting thing for developers is that the new browser edge which is a UAP was designed using the same tools as a developer would use for their own apps.

Summary of the key areas

Area

Features

Universal App. Platform(UAP) platform

Universal App. Platform offers the capability to write your app. Once and run it on all Windows Platforms starting with the Windows Embedded (Athens) to Mobile to Desktop to new Surface HubApps are coded to Universal App. Platform and not to the hardware platform or Operating Systems using Windows.Foundation.Metadata.Apiinformation. What that means is that applications shouldn’t be designed for Win 10 Mobile or Win 10 desktop etc This alleviates the need to code to least common denominator hardware they would be supporting

Visual Studio

Visual Studio teams had a busy year with a lot of new features.. To name a few:· Web Apps(JS etc),· Android (Java)· iOS(objective C),· Open source integration(Git hub, Alljoin, Big data programming ),

· Cloud apps,

· Unit testing, perf.

· New VS Code part editor part IDE

One $tore for all Windows Platforms

One can now link apps meant for Windows Phone to Dekstop.1 submission for all, 1 certification but and 1 pricing. Typically the greatest common denominator if one has apps on both mobile and Desktop is chosen. The base price from is chosen from Windows (desktop), screen shots are chosen from both to give user flexibility, category is chosen from windows(desktop) etc…There is the option of having multiple packages for old OS 1 package. The dashboard is on dev.windows.com is redesigned.

Some folks asked me about the sessions I attended and Below are the some sessions I found useful. These are not in any particular order and cover ranging topics from Azure, IoT, UX, Programming:

Sessions I found useful

Topic

Link

Nano sever : A Cloud Optimized Windows Server for DevelopersMicrosoft defines its Nano Server as a “headless, 64-bit only deployment option for Windows Server.” It’s like Server Core, except that it’s 20 times smaller. The compressed size or reduced server “footprint” brings a number of benefits, including fewer security vulnerabilities to address, reduced patch and reboot times, and scalability improvements.To address the cloud, the GUI built into the server had to go. Instead, Nano Server gets managed using a remote GUI through a browser-based application. For instance, the presentation showed off a browser-based dev-ops program called Visual Studio Release Management. It doesn’t use Remote Desktop Protocol to remote into a server. Instead, it uses Core PowerShell scripts for management, along with Desired State Configuration, which is PowerShell’s push-pull configuration technology.

Project Centennial”: Converting your Classic Windows App (Win32, .Net, COM) to a Universal Windows App for Distribution in the Windows Store This allows Win32 apps to run in a container security. The app becomes a UWP app and hence can run on Xbox, Halo lens, Surface Hub etc.To help support Win32 apps which need Winsock, CreateThread() API’s these API’s will be available to UWP apps also. WMI, DAM, COM works just like Win32. Access to click once API’s lost after the first launch.Some features like active X deployment wont work etc.

Project Spartan”: Introducing the New Browser and Web App Platform for Windows 10 Key reason for using the browser is primarily around because it will work well with optimized sites, supports Cortana and many other gems such as Web extensions, pointer lock for shooter games and reading lists . IE due to compatibility reasons may not support but with forked code. This allows for edge supportability forked with IE compatibility. The best part is that Edge can launch IE for sites which are not compatible for example which need VB script.Other things are distraction-free offline reading and built-in note-taking & sharing. Below is a comparison of Alaska airlines website on a mobile device.

Windows Design for Developers: An Executive Panel Windows Insider program feedback has been taken into account for UX design for Win 10.One of the better talks I attended. This talk gave me a perspective on how much of Win 10 UX design is incorporating feedback from Windows Insiders

Optimizing Windows Apps for ContinuumEffort involved in letting applications working across multiple screens is very little especially for mobile. You can resize your application on desktop to test the look and feel on mobile.Some key concepts are effective pixel, pixel density and viewing distance etc. More here:

Building Rich, Contextually Aware Universal Windows Apps Using Sensors There is support for batching sensor request to save on power. Applications can use background triggers to detect things like user activity (like walking etc). There is also availability of sensor history data.Custom sensor can be easily added and apps. can use GUID to detect the device. Sensor simulators are available from Github to build and test applications.

Developing 3D Printing Apps and Services in Windows 10The 3d print space has many individual, challenges with nonstart drivers, low print success rate, limitations on information exchange, limitations in existing formats , formats not designed for 3d format.The 3mf consortium tries to solve some of these with open source, compact human readable. This will allow for repair capabilities API, plug and play, enable cloud printing. There will 3d builder inbox which will allow for visualizations and validation and repair. This removes the single highest barrier to entry removed.3d content is open for partners to develop. More details here: www.thingverse.com/Emmett

API Contracts (or How I Learned to Stop Checking OS Versions and Love Feature Detection)Least Common Denominator API’s really suck,. Instead have adaptive apps which run on multiple platforms. Use the Windows.Foundation.Metadata.Apiinformation classes and methods to find out what features your app. Targets.

Build in my opinion had one of the best key notes. The Google key note was dull and lacked appeal, IoS on the other hand was not bad but Apple ecosystem is very limited compared to what Microsoft covers. Build had powerful demos and tremendous wow factor with Halolens especially. We will see more in a couple of weeks when Apple and Google 2015 conferences are held.

Conclusion

Overall I think Win 10 is going to be a great platform for at least a billion devices. So if you are a developer this present s great opportunity on writing all sort of apps. for so many different platforms…